A HISTORY OF RUTLAND on the after-careers of the entrants. In his first three years the average number admitted was 10 ; in his fourth year he reached high-water mark with 28 ; during the next six years the averaije was again 10, and in his last five years only live. That the boys had brains or were well taught, or both, is shown by the list of univer- sity distinctions, a fifth, ninth, seventeenth, twenty-eighth, and forty-fifth wranglership, a first class in the classical tripos (eighth), two Bell scholarships, and the Tyrwhitt Hebrew scholar- ship, three fellowships at St. John's and one at Caius at Cambridge, and the Craven scholarship at Oxford, as well as many minor successes. The school in Buckland's time or a little later followed a well-known Eton custom, the letting down of beds, by which, at the older school, the election of the captain of ' Montem ' was made known as far as Windsor Castle. Accord- ing to the report of an old lady who worked in the hospital, ' there was rough doings then, to be sure. On the last night of the half they used to let down the beds ; that's what they used to call it ... lift 'em up, and let 'em all go at once ; they used to make a noise like thunder. You see, they was those great old heavy oak bedsteads, big ones too, they slep' three in a bed ; and they used to lift 'em at the foot and then let 'em all fall together, on purpose to make a noise.' '* To these rough days may fitly be allocated the story of the head master who, after paying a business call at a neighbouring inn, was surprised to learn that the youths whom he hadseendrinking at the barwere his own scholars ! Buckland was presented by his own college to the vicarai^e of Peasmarsh, Sussex, on 16 January 1833,*' and here he spent the rest of his life after resigning Uppingham in 1839. The next master, the Rev. George Ash Butter- ton, B.D. 1838, D.D. 1843, was a very distin- guished Cambridge graduate, having been eighth wrangler and third classic in 1827. From 1828 to 1837 he was a fellow of his college, St. John's. His stay at Uppingham lasted only seven years. He resigned in 1845 on appoint- ment to the head-mastership of Giggleswick School, which he held until 1859." As many as 43 boys were admitted in his second year, no doubt the year remembered afterwards as the first in which the school numbers reached 1 00 ; but the average in his last three years was only nine. The after-careers of his pupils show that the school was not only maintaining its position in the old fields, but that it was achieving success in new directions. Thus, in addition to three wranglerships, three first classes in the classical tripos, and five fellowships at Cambridge, pupils of Butterton also gained two fellowships at Oxford, the Boden Sanskrit scholarship, two " Early Days at Ufpingham under E. Thring, by an Old Boy, 132. " Foster, op. cit. « V.C.H. Torks. i, 462. places in the Indian Civil Ser'ice, a place in the Cambridge University XI, and an F.R.S. Two became members of Parliament, two professors in India and Australia, two masters of secondary schools — one of them the Rev. Robert Edward Sanderson, D.D., head master in succession of Bradfield (1851-9) and of Lancing (1859-89), and now Canon of Chichester. On Butterton's promotion to Giggleswick, the choice of the governors fell upon Henry Holden, the second Balliol man to hold the mastership. A Shrewsbury boy, pupil of Samuel Butler, and a scholar of his college, he was proxime for the Ireland scholarship in 1835, and took a first class in classics in 1837. The annual admissions under him remained fairly steady, showing no great fluctuations, the average working out at 18. The life-records of his pupils illustrate still further the widening influence of the school ; one became a colonial bishop, another a major-general, two became professors of what would be regarded as distinctly modern subjects, of geology and agriculture. Oxford seems to have attracted most of the talent of the school, four fellowships being gained there as against one at Cambridge. The Cambridge fellowship was gained by Holden's most distinguished pupil, Thomas George Bonney, twelfth wrangler and a second class classic in 1856, fellow, lecturer, and tutor of St. John's, Professor of Geology in University College, London, B.D., D.Sc, F.S.A., F.R.S. The school again gained two places in the Indian Civil Service and produced a Cambridge cricket ' blue.' Holden left in 1853 on appointment to the mastership of Durham School, being preferred to his more famous successor at Uppingham, who was also a candidate. After twenty-four years' work he re- turned to the scene of his early labours as rector of South Luffenham, to which he was presented by his old college. In 1850 a new usher, the last assistant to bear the title, was appointed, the Rev. William James Earle, of St. John's College, Cambridge, bracketed eighteenth wrangler in 1849, and at the time curate of Lyndon, Rutland. Before dealing with the refoundation of Uppingham by Thring, it will be useful to take stock of the school, especially of the material equipment, as it had taken shape against Holden's last years. The main part of the teaching was still done in the Old School, and in the more recent usher's room adjoining. The boys were divided into three classes, each con- taining two divisions, the head master being responsible for the two highest, the usher for the third and fourth, and an assistant for the first and second. A ' writing and accidence master,' a wonderful expert in the art of mend- ing pens, did the odd jobs. The head master, with his class, sat at the east end, looking down the school, while the assistant master and writ- 88
